Global Trends in Research on extracorporeal shock wave therapy(ESWT) from 2000 to 2021

Abstract

Abstract Background: This study intended to analyze the application of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in medicine and to evaluate the quality of related literature. Methods: All publications were extracted from 2000 to 2021 from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The literature characteristics were depicted by VOSviewer (version 1.6.15) and the online bibliometric website (http://bibliometric.com/). The future trends and hotspots were conducted by Bibliographic Item Co-occurrence Matrix Builder (version 2.0) and gCLUTO software. Results: We analyzed 1774 articles corresponding to the criteria for ESWT publications from 2000 to 2021. Most studies were conducted within the United States and China which besides have the most cooperation. The most published research institutions are Chang Gung University, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and Kaohsiung Medical University. JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC RESEARCH, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE, and JOURNAL OF SURGICAL RESEARCH are the top three most-cited journals. The keyword cluster analysis divides the 30 keywords with the highest frequency into 6 clusters. Conclusions: With the gradual increase of research on ESWT, we find that ESWT is used more and more extensively, such in musculoskeletal disease, bone delay union, neurological injury, andrology disorders, lymphedema, and so on. In addition, the mechanism is not destructive damage, as initially thought, but a restorative treatment. Furthermore, delayed union, cellulite, burn, and diabetic foot ulcers may be the future direction of scientific study.